Rationality versus irrationality in Egyptian medicine in the pharaonic and Graeco-Roman periods.

During the Ptolemaic Period (332 BC-31 BC), many Greek medical practitioners settled in Egypt where they established an outstanding medical school and developed a distinctive rational approach to diagnosis and treatment which some scholars have regarded as a significant advance on earlier Egyptian procedures. However, Egyptian medicine itself combined both 'rational' and 'irrational' procedures, and extant ancient sources indicate that 'rationality' was not a new concept. Also, several other medical advances that modern writers have usually attributed to the Greeks can be identified in earlier Egyptian traditions. Nevertheless, the limitations of extant textual and archaeological evidence constrain the scope of studies in this area, and new information is required to carry the debate forward.